How can you Alaskan's live in a place that doesnt get warmer than 70 degrees. (Anchorage: house, high schools)

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by SandHills

Questioned indeed... though last year was interesting:

Birmingham has finally seen 90-degree weather. How long will it last? | AL.com

Thanks.

Why was this interesting? All it says is that Birmingham got a late start on its typically high summer temperatures last year.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by SandHills

Only a few of the info confirming links were posted. Doubt away. All info is to be picked apart, right? Just criticizing small parts you do not like is getting popular these days.

Not exactly. It comes down to verifying sources. Before I posted something as questionable as how Fairbanks gets 22 days of above 90 temps in July, I'd verify my source instead of pulling up a junk site and claiming it's official info. And if you actually think I was "criticizing small parts that I do not like," well, you missed again. One more time, the site in question wasn't a real weather site.

Pffft.

[VJDAY81445]

We all make mistakes, however when something is so outrageous ( as claiming Fairbanks Alaska has more 90 degree days than Birmingham Alabama) why believe it ?

[grandma4mom5]

Heat wave on the horizon: Fairbanks could see 90 degrees next week - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Local News this is from June 2013 stating for the first time in 3 yrs the temp might get over 90 the next week in Fairbanks. something i have noticed living in Anchorage, just because the gauge says 80 in the summer, doesn't mean that's what it feels like. in the middle of the day if it's cloudy, it feels cooler, and if the sun is shining bright, it feels a lot hotter. and clouds make a difference in the nights holding in the day's warmth. the difference is the earth's tilt during different seasons (closer/farther from sun).

[AK76]

Originally Posted by grandma4mom5

Heat wave on the horizon: Fairbanks could see 90 degrees next week - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Local News this is from June 2013 stating for the first time in 3 yrs the temp might get over 90 the next week in Fairbanks. something i have noticed living in Anchorage, just because the gauge says 80 in the summer, doesn't mean that's what it feels like. in the middle of the day if it's cloudy, it feels cooler, and if the sun is shining bright, it feels a lot hotter. and clouds make a difference in the nights holding in the day's warmth. the difference is the earth's tilt during different seasons (closer/farther from sun).

That is a fallacy in every respect. The difference in the intensity of solar energy is the lack of pollution and particulate matter in the atmosphere over Alaska, the "filter" is absent, unlike the more populated (polluted) regions of the earth. That is why 70F here feels like 90F in a place like Portland or San Francisco.

[TheKezarWoodsman]

also, not an Alaskan, but some people perfer cold, i suffer massive headaches anything over 70 degrees. For me, Alaska is much better than most states.

[rhiannon67]

Originally Posted by Worryworryworry

How can you guys in Anchorage, Fairbanks and BARROW live in a place that has 9 months winter and a summer that the hottest days are 75ish degrees.

I don't understand .

Originally Posted by Worryworryworry

Im from Massachusetts, not Arizona.

Exactly why do you care? I have to ask.

Hot weather ain't for everyone. I don't live in Alaska yet, but that's changing this summer. Moreover, the very fact Alaskan summers rarely go above 75 degrees (Anchorage especially) is precisely one of the selling features!

Some people hate heat. Not only do I hate heat, I am not a fan of sunshine, in general. Alaskan summers are cloudier than summers in Seattle....and I originally moved to Seattle to escape the sunshine and heat of LA some 20+ years ago!

BTW, I like Mass as well. Boston is a beautiful city and the climate there is pretty nice as well. However, the entire Northeast would feel too much like a rat race. Alaska suits my temperament, and from talking to the Alaskans on here....most people live up there because they choose to

[TKO]

Originally Posted by AK76

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That is a fallacy in every respect. The difference in the intensity of solar energy is the lack of pollution and particulate matter in the atmosphere over Alaska, the "filter" is absent, unlike the more populated (polluted) regions of the earth. That is why 70F here feels like 90F in a place like Portland or San Francisco.

No, sunlight at an oblique angle as you get in the far north provides much less solar insolation (my geography degree ) than sunlight coming from directly overhead. It travels through a much greater amount of atmosphere which scatters and absorbs even if there are no man made particulates.

As demonstrated by this graph of average solar insolation by latitude from NASA:



http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Fea...ance/page3.php

[WinterWonder1]

Originally Posted by wolfhelm

also, not an Alaskan, but some people perfer cold, i suffer massive headaches anything over 70 degrees. For me, Alaska is much better than most states.

I feel almost the same way. I get headacks closer to 80 deg. I perspire heavily so I need to be drinking fluids constantly. I couldn't live in Arizona year round. I find that the dry heat sucks the fluid out of me without me realizing it until it's too late. Then I suffer from leg cramps at night. My parents retired in Arizona and I visit them often. It's a really nice change until the heat comes and it no longer cools at night.

[TKO]

Originally Posted by AK76

Alaska is NOT closer to the sun due to the tilt of the earths axis, as the poster I quoted had stated. Read again.

Your example is the effect of solar energy during the respective change in seasons, different conversation.

I was responding directly to your statement that less pollutants = stronger sunlight in Alaska. That is simply not true. The example shows that on the same day of the year, regardless of season, the sunlight in Alaska is much weaker than the sunlight in a lower latitude. The graph is showing the amount of solar energy, not the effect of that energy.

If the other poster was saying that the tilt of the earth is the reason for stronger sunlight up north they would be wrong too because Alaskan sunlight is not stronger. May feel that way after you've been in it for 18 hours straight and the shade keeps moving on you, but it's not the case.